


The Only Thing Necessary

by Rajani_the_Freak



Series: what makes a hero? AU [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: ALL OF IT, Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Batman salt, Lila Rossi Lies, Lila salt, Marinette SNAPS, Salt, Self-Indulgent, Unreliable Narrator, aaaaaaaall the salt, characters are very likely OOC, class salt, inspired in another fic, it... doesn't go well for her, the birth of Pettynette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:54:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27809407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rajani_the_Freak/pseuds/Rajani_the_Freak
Summary: Her last hope to save her class from Lila's lies was gone to ashes. It's up to Marinette to deal with it by herself.(continuation of m3owww's one shot chapter "what makes a hero?" from the oneshot compilation "the stars that shine above us all". please read it before this one)
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi (mentioned only)
Series: what makes a hero? AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034739
Comments: 20
Kudos: 321





	The Only Thing Necessary

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [the stars that shine above us all](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26176576) by [m3owww](https://archiveofourown.org/users/m3owww/pseuds/m3owww). 



> Warning: High Sodium Content; unreliable narrator (it's Marinette's POV so we only see her side)
> 
> I started writing this when I was in a particularly mood with salt propensity as I wondered what would have happened after, considering Lila felt free to continue her lies at will. Basically: She decides to lie about the wrong thing and there are consequences.

When she’d approached Bruce Wayne on him suing Lila over her lies, she’d been desperate. She’d been desperate because it was her very last chance to help her classmates.

She’d tried everything before. She’d tried going through her school first. That didn’t pan out at all. She’d hadn’t expected it to, to be honest. She knew they never defended the victims. After all, they’d never defended her against Chloe. In fact, they consistently put her in the same class as her, which only made her life worse. To this day she didn’t know what they were expecting to happen by doing that.

So no, she didn’t expect anything out of it, but she hoped that, by getting some files documenting Lila’s behavior, she could establish a psychologic profile for her that she could use further along the way when she needed to take her to court for some reason or another.

That didn’t pan out because the school’s headmaster either didn’t actually write the files, or he’d trashed them not long after writing them. She’d only found out when Max tried to mess with her grades, having believed Lila’s lies that Marinette had stolen her essay and she had to learn to hack herself to get them back to the proper grade before it was too late. She’d decided to copy whatever they had in the system of her complaints about Lila just in case, only to find nothing.

That was a disappointment.

Her parents… the less said about them the better. They hadn’t bought Lila’s lies at first. But the problem began when they started noticing her disappearing. And sure, it was because she was busy being Ladybug, but they didn’t know that and she couldn’t tell them anyway. Not when her father got akumatised over her love life, of all things. And if her father could fall prey to an akuma that easily, who’s to say her mother couldn’t as well. She couldn’t trust them with her identity. Not when it could ultimately be used against her in the long run.

And after she’d defeated Hawkmoth? Well, she still couldn’t because now she was the Guardian of the Miraculous and the lightest hint of a slip up could be catastrophic. She was now too used to playing it safe to take a chance on them, even without the threat of akumas.

She tried to use the legal system. Both of their mothers made sure that nothing ever got to court.

She tried approaching Alya as Ladybug. That… didn’t end well. For either of her identities.

Jagged tried and only got Lila to stop talking about him since she was excused with a warning for being a minor.

There hadn’t been a path she hadn’t tried and that was what had ultimately broken her friendship with Adrien, as tentative as it had been. Despite everything, he was still a staunch defender of the ‘High Road’ way. Though it wasn’t so much ‘high road’ as it was ‘ignore it until it goes away’, except that it doesn’t go away because ignoring it is only feeding the problem.

Dealing with liars wasn’t like dealing with online trolls and Adrien either couldn’t understand that difference, or was so far in denial that he refused to see it for what it was.

Other classes saw Lila for what she was… but after Chloe’s brand of bullying and the school’s brand of ‘not punishing the bully’ they felt safer pretending it had nothing to do with them.

Luka was on her side… but the other members of the band were all classmates of her and ended up kicking him out because of it, so he left with Jagged on tour and she couldn’t lean on him.

Kagami… was complicated. She didn’t like Lila at all. It didn’t even matter if Lila was a liar or not. But she was more concerned with the fact that Lila was still pretty possessive of Adrien even after he and Kagami had started dating. 

Only after the fall out with Hawkmoth did Lila loosen up a bit on her octopus routine on his arm, but not completely. A terrorist Gabriel might be, but his son wasn’t and, with his father’s stay in prison, all that money would go to his son.

Too bad for her that, without his father’s threat over him, he wasn’t as forgiving of her as before. Still forgiving enough to keep her interested, because of his stupid ‘moral code’ that had caused the fall out of their friendship.

Regardless, Kagami had tried to remain Mari’s friend, but with her having to constantly focus on fighting back against Lila and her propensity of starting rumors about dating Adrien, along with the end of Mari’s friendship with the boy, they’d ended up drifting apart. They still kept contact, but they were busy more often than not.

Tomoe Tsurugi, didn’t like it. She liked Marinette and how she’d influenced her daughter and, after the news got out, along with some of the stuff that she heard coming from Adrien’s mouth herself, she’d gradually come to consider him a bad influence. But Kagami hadn’t fought tooth and nail to having him as her boyfriend for nothing. She’d even risked her first friendship over it and, had it been anyone other than Marinette, she wouldn’t have one to speak for at all. That was how serious about it she was.

To top it all off, Chat Noir had also refused to do anything and, when she found out he’d been Adrien all along, she refused to give him her identity back and simply took the miraculous with her. He’d been too numb by the reveal that his father was Hawkmoth to complain at the time, but considering how quick he was to change his opinions on Ladybug as soon as he recovered and went along with the class, she knew her answer to whatever lingering questions she might have had.

This just to say that Marinette really hadn’t taken it lightly when she tried asking Bruce Wayne for his help. She wanted to save her classmates even if they hated her now (except for Rose, but Rose really was incapable of hating anyone). She did so because she’d seen them at their best and she’d seen what they could become. She did so because she knew that they would lose all of that by putting their faith in one liar that didn’t care about consequences. 

Alya’s future was already heavily compromised. She bragged about her Ladyblog as if it showcased her greatest achievements, not knowing that instead it showcased all the reasons why she’d never be taken under the wing of any of the news media companies she idolized. Mari had confirmed it with Nadja Chamack herself. Alya still had time to turn it around, but it had to be done now rather than later.

Of all the outcomes, she’d never expected to not only find out that Bruce Wayne was an uncaring jerk that wouldn’t help prevent the sad fate her classmates faced, but that he was also Batman, which only made it all worse.

She’d been considering joining the Justice League before that. She’d been hoping they would provide an added layer of safety for the miraculous. She… couldn’t trust them to have the people’s best interest at heart when _Batman_ , one of the longest standing members and part of the original founding group before more heroes were added, refused to act.

‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’ indeed. Alya was right about that. It was the simple concept around which she’d built her whole Ladybug persona.  
And he knew she was Ladybug.

This changed things. Her identity was the only thing she had left that she still valued, aside from her fashion designs under the _nom de plume_ Dandelion’s Coccinelle. This meant that she would fight for it tooth and nail.

This decided it! After the school trip was done, she was going to change her name and hair color and start anew. She would still design clothes like before, but she wouldn’t associate her new identity with the brand. Whenever she had business as the owner of Dandelion’s Coccinelle, she would momentarily return to being Marinette and then change back before returning to whatever identity she implemented. She was pretty sure that, if ‘the Batman’ knew she was Ladybug, then for sure he knew that she was the creator of Dandelion’s Coccinelle, so that meant extra security needed to be added to her future new identity.

She hadn’t been able to plan against Lila because she’d trusted Adrien with her heart and soul. But she wasn’t trusting anyone else other than herself in this one. She wouldn’t do the same mistake again. This time she would have all planned out. Every single contingency. The only people keeping her contact (and, even then, it would be through her Miraculous device for added safety), would be Jagged, Penny, Luka and Kagami because, for as distant as they’d been in the last months leading to the defeat of Hawkmoth and then the school trip, they hadn’t cut contact with her. They were just busy, but she had been as well too so she could understand.

She also started planning for the fall out of Lila’s lies. Like Alya had told her: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So, she would have a safety net that her classmates didn’t know about ready because, unlike Batman, she wasn’t going to let evil win.

She didn’t save Paris because she wanted Paris to love her. She might have had preferential treatment for her classmates when she’d first started handing out miraculous, but that was the extent of it. She was still trying to uncover Lila’s lies, despite all the harsh treatment from her classmates, not because she hoped they would be friends with her once more, but because it was the right thing.

At this point she wasn’t even sure she wanted to be friends with them, to be honest. That wasn’t her endgame with all of this, so she hadn’t focused on it. She’d only wanted to save their futures.

But with her last hope dashed, she gave up on a fast resolution. All the stress built up after years and years, only kept at bay because she kept coming up with solutions to all the problems she had because she knew that if she stopped all would be lost, all of that being held together by the very last thread of hope that Bruce Wayne had just tore apart caused her to SnAp! 

She gave up on solving this impossible situation. It was too late to solve it. Now she could only get ready for the fall out. So, she kept her head down throughout the remaining days she had left in Gotham and, in the quiet of her isolated room, the worst one Lila could convince the others to give her in the hotel, she plotted with the help of the kwamis that she now refused to let leave her sight.

She had hoped only for quiet inconsequential days. But the black cat was without a holder while the ladybug remained in use so, to balance it out, bad luck stroked randomly, though not always directed at her. It just so happened it hit before they left Gotham.

Lila had been running her mouth. Bruce refused to intercede, so she kept on running her mouth, eventually starting to run it about the city’s vigilantes as well. And, of course, the rogues took issue with that. More specifically, Joker took issue with that. Mostly because he took issue with everything related to Batman. The other rogues kept on doing their thing without involving the class.

So they found themselves barricaded inside a building, surrounded by his minions, as the man himself tried to think up the most sadistic thing he could do with them. His guest of honor, who was close to peeing herself in fright, was Lila

Marinette could have easily solved the situation as Ladybug… but her identity was one of the few things she had left and, like stated before, she was fiercely protective over it. So, Ladybug couldn’t suddenly show up in Gotham without exposing her identity.

To add to that, she held no trust with someone like Batman. Not after their conversation just a couple of days before. She left after her final spiel. Simply turning her back and leaving, her head held high, her heart full of rage that she no longer needed to tamp down but she still did it out of habit. She knew what had happened to several of his Robins. She might have dismissed it as human error before. She knew what it was like to make a mistake and it costing more than she could bear. She’d costed Master Fu’s memories with hers, after all, and she wasn’t a hypocrite. But after their conversation? Fuck that noise! If he couldn’t bother to help save a group of innocent teens who were being misled, who’s to say he would have any care for people who actually _had_ combative skills?

And if she wasn’t going to put faith in the head honcho of the furry troupe of the city, why would she put any faith in his sidekicks. Oh, pardon her, she meant ‘partners’. Canon food, most likely.

All she had now was civilian Marinette, so she would have to solve it as civilian Marinette.

The Joker left with Lila to use her for the broadcast that was supposed to attract Batman to the scene, so she didn’t have long if she wanted to do this without his interference.

As soon as she started seeing the goons left behind donning the gas masks, she knew their fate was dark. She’d heard tales about the gas that the Joker developed that made you die with a smile and she wasn’t too keen on experiencing it firsthand. So, she took the chance, when they were all too distracted by putting on the masks to properly aim a gun, to tackle the first one and knock him out. Immediately her classmates stepped aside, seeing the other men quickly withdrawing guns.

But she was Ladybug, in and out of the suit. And she’d battled plenty of akumas who could create armies that were capable of shooting projectiles, a lot of the time without the help of her partner because he’d been hit and was now fighting against her. Perhaps said projectiles were not as fast as bullets, but fact still stands.

At some point Adrien joined in to help, after the initial shock of seeing her fight like a pro faded. Not that it helped much. She’d defeated most of them and hadn’t quite managed to escape two shots, one in her calf and another in her shoulder.

It didn’t matter, though. She was still alive and now they all had masks, with a few left over.

Most of her classmates were still stunned at her skills, but too scared to really think about it too much when she was all set to lead them out. They’d think about it more later. Adrien was a different case altogether. He was used to battles and to thinking clearly even in the direst situations. It was the first time he really looked at her and actually _saw_ her. Years before, this would have thrilled her. Now it just left a bitter taste in her mouth. She wasn’t sure if he’d connected the dots or if he’d just gotten another ‘celebrity’ crush like the one he’d had on Ladybug. It figures that he’d get the hots for girls who knew how to fight. Regardless of which was the case, it wouldn’t matter in the end. Even if her identity as Marinette was associated with Ladybug, she’d soon have a new one anyway. At least she was pretty sure no one else would make the connection.

Exiting the closed compartment they were stuck in was harder than defeating the grunts, or it would have been if she hadn’t developed so many lockpicking skills as a teen. The building wasn’t exactly a high tech one so the locks were rudimentary ones when compared to the ones that need to be hacked into to break in like the ones at Wayne Enterprises. 

They still had to face a few grunts along the way, but none as concentrated as the ones in the room. She led the class to the exit and then went back when they were distracted. Adrien was with them, so he would suffice for safety.

She wasn’t one to half-ass her job and, as much as she hated Lila, she was still her responsibility. At least as far as the Bat furry was concerned. And she refused to let him have one over her, especially after the bullcrap speech he’d given her two days ago. If Lila was her responsibility then by golly she was going to be responsible!

By the time she found the Joker and Lila, she was sure that she was moving out of spite rather than actual energy because she’d lost too much blood. As expected, he’d taken over some news channel she wasn’t too bothered to identify and had a countdown to, she supposed, Lila’s death.

She wasn’t intact. Marinette hadn’t expected her to be. This was the Joker, after all. He’d put some sort of contraption that had hooks attacked to Lila’s mouth, forcing it into a smile so wide it showed her gums. The hooks had started tearing into her lips and cheeks and it seemed they were being pulled wider and wider. Lila could hardly move for fear of making it worse as tears poured don’t her face and she moaned in pain as the salt in them hit the fresh wounds. She’d peed herself sometime between her being taken to now and Marinette wasn’t going to judge her for it. The Joker _is_ terrifying.

There were some minions here too so the Joker wasn’t her only opponent.

The only way to equalize it was by plunging them all into the dark so she attacked the lights with a gun she’d procured from one of the thugs she’d knocked out as Tikki used the confusion to mess with Lila’s contraption. She hadn’t expected the kick of it and hissed in pain as it aggravated the wound she had in one of her shoulder, but she didn’t stop until all the lights were down because every second counted.

Instead of going for the enemies, she went for Lila. Lila was her priority, after all. Her _responsibility_.

When they realized they weren’t being attacked directly, they were quick to realize that Lila was the target and started shooting her way but by then Marinette had already cut what remained of the bindings and the hooks keeping her in place and dragged her away. She’d untie her arms and legs later.

The clan of local furries must have arrived in the meanwhile because they weren’t followed, though she did feel the cut from one of Joker’s razor like cards on her back.

She found her classmates waiting outside, being interviewed by the police and looked over by the EMTs She dumped Lila, who was sobbing hysterically, into a vacant stretcher, ignoring the looks she was receiving from everyone as she moved towards another one.

She must have passed out soon after because next thing she knew, she was waking up in a hospital bed. She felt a bit sluggish but it was inconsequential. 

A male nurse noticed her awake and, after quickly checking on her health status, he went to get a cop to get her testimony.

For the most part it was simple questions: What the class was doing; did she notice something was off before the maniacs made themselves known; what happened next; etc. It wasn’t until later that the questions started turning specific. Like why she decided to play the hero.

For a moment she considered not saying anything. She was so used to keeping secrets and making excuses that for a moment it didn’t dawn on her that she didn’t need to lie to keep certain details hidden.

“When I first got to Gotham, I had a plan to expose Lila and her lies.” She started. “I’ve tried everything I could but she was cunning in her manipulations. No one back home could help me. So, I tried reaching out for a citizen that’s known for supporting good causes in here, hoping that person would help. It… didn’t work.” She could see the cop running through a mental list of people she might be referring to. While Bruce Wayne was the most well-known, he still wasn’t the only one. “He said that it was my responsibility to keep my classmates safe from her lies. I had only come to him for help because I had no other option and he somehow seemed to think I didn’t do enough. I don’t know if he is just an uninformed moron or really that much of a jerk and only helps the community to look good and, honestly, at this moment in time I don’t care. Be that as it may, he still told me my class was my responsibility and he hasn’t been the only one to say it so far. Maybe not as directly as him, but I’ve had my teacher try to make me the example to follow while refusing to punish or dis-incentivize the problematic kids. So… when the time came, I took responsibility. That’s what I’m here for, it seems.” She said and the cop’s face twisted in an appalled expression at what he’d heard.

“You still shouldn’t have run along like that, young lady. You could have died. Please refrain from fighting back during a hostage situation in the future.” He stated.

“Hopefully, I won’t to be concerned with such for a long time.” Marinette retorted.

“Going back to what we were doing. Can you describe to me in detail what you did and why?”

She then had to tell him about how she’d gone back to save Lila and the cop seemed split between her letting aside her own feelings to do what is right and scolding for, once again, taking unnecessary risks for the civilian he thought she was. He also tried to get her to name whoever had told her the class was her responsibility, but she refused to say anymore. 

She wasn’t doing that for the sake of Bruce Wayne’s reputation. She couldn’t care less, as things were. She was doing this out of self-preservation. When they’d still been friends, Alya had told her all she knew about the superheroes and vigilantes and the Justice League and Young Justice and Teen Titans. Batman and Superman were the most featured, though Wonder Woman was a close third. Superman because her favorite journalist wrote about him, so it was really more about Louis Lane than about Superman. And Batman because he had no powers. He was just a regular man who trained to do what he was doing and had a lot of gadgets to make up for what he lacked and she admired that.

Of course, she would probably thing it was less impressive if she knew that most of the gadgets that Batman had probably weren’t invented by the man himself, considering how much money he had to throw about, but Marinette wasn’t going to be the one to burst that bubble.

The cop left and Marinette was left to her own devices, which involved her asking a nurse to at least give her back her earrings because they were family heirlooms. Surprisingly, it didn’t take much convincing. Marinette guesses it wasn’t unusual for people to get their belongings appropriated from where they were stashed. The nurse was also kind enough to give back her cellphone which she used to contact her parents, even if they were less than supportive to her as it was, and then contacted the people that she knew cared about her.

Mlle. Bustier came to visit her out of obligation as her teacher. She gushed on how she’d done the right thing and how she’d been getting concerned that she didn’t take her duties as class president seriously anymore since she was so disruptive in class. Instead of focusing on the bullcrap that was coming out of her teacher’s mouth, Marinette instead focused on the horrified and disgusted nurse who’d been doing a routine check on her and was now trying to discreetly film the interaction one her phone. She must know French and Bustier hadn’t realized it by the look of it.

Huh. At least there were still decent people out there. Or at least that’s what Marinette assumed. There weren’t many reasons why anyone would film this conversation other than use it as evidence for a lawsuit. Unless they were just going to post it on Tumblr full of hashtags dissing the teacher. Either way, it could still be useful in the future.  
Marinette might even just push it further along.

“With all due respect.” She interrupted her teacher. “This wouldn’t have happened in the first place if you and the headmaster hadn’t allowed Lila to continue lying. By doing so, you put the whole class at risk. If anyone should have done what I did it should have been you. At least then you would have atoned for your negligence and enabler-istic ideals that have already caused harm to my classmates’ view on what life should be. If you have nothing else to say, I’d appreciate if you left me to recover from what you caused in peace.”

This changed her teacher’s tune as she started scolding her for not being an example on what to do for her classmates and discriminating against her classmate who suffered from a lying disease and couldn’t help it.

Eventually, noticing Marinette’s lack of reaction to anything she said, Mlle. Bustier left with a last disappointed glance directed her way.

“Sorry you had to see that.” Marinette told the nurse. “I would have said that it was a one-time thing, but then I would be lying. So, what’s the verdict on my health?” She said, pretending not to see the nurse switching off her phone.

“You are doing surprisingly well, all things considered. The wounds are healing nicely with no sign of infection, though it is odd that they are healing so fast. It’s still a good thing from what I see, though.”

After some more small talk, the nurse, who’d apparently been selected to help her because the staff wasn’t sure if she knew English or spoke it fluently, left to give her doctor the update and maybe return with an estimation of how much longer would she need to stay there.

They must have forbidden any more visitors after that since she was mostly left alone until her release day.

What she hadn’t been expecting, though, was for another face to face with the man had proven to her that adults couldn’t be trusted to do right by children unless it benefited them.

He’d been waiting for her, having expressed interest in escorting her back to her class to the doctors, who apparently saw no problem with that. She wasn’t surprised they didn’t. He was _Bruce Wayne_ after all.

She knew. She knew he’d been the one to pay for her expenses. Her kneejerk reaction would have been to toss the money right back in his face and tell him to shove a _poire d’angoisse_ up his bum and another in his mouth to shut him up for good.

But she was used to repressing everything, so that urge didn’t last long as she gave way to the most rational side of her brain. Logically, she knew that the American health care system sucked. There was also the fact that if Batman was any good at his job, there wouldn’t be a Joker running around anymore. So, all things considered, it was his fault it had happened. And she dealt with her part of responsibility in the issue just fine.

That didn’t explain why he’d decided it was a good idea to escort her anywhere. She didn’t comment until they were both in the car. And, even then, she decided to wait for him to speak. It was a bit of a mental game. He probably thought she would start questioning him. Heck, he probably had expected her to resist getting in the car. She was sure her easy compliance and lack of questioning had him on edge. Last time he’d spoken to her he’d dealt with a far more emotional version of her, after all.

But she wasn’t facing him as a potential ally anymore. She was analyzing him like she would an akuma. If he was as great a detective as the world claimed he was, then he must have at least caught onto that.

“You should have let us deal with the Joker. Rushing ahead like that was a naïve move.” He stated, deciding to cut to the chase. He’d probably also caught onto how little she felt like dealing with filler bullcrap at the moment.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. Never once did I aim at the Joker. That’s your job, right?” She stated sedately with a small serene fake smile in place.

“You know perfectly well what I’m talking about. You only ended up putting your classmates in even more danger.”

“Sure, we were going to be just fine from whatever bullshit they were going to gas us with. Keep telling yourself that, sir. Just leave me out of your delusions, if you will.” She retorted sarcastically, still keeping the serene expression from before, only her tone of voice indicating the difference. She really needed to keep her temper a bit better.

“It was still not your place to act, especially without having your suit on. You got shot. _Twice_.”

Was he… was he trying to parent her? After what he’d done before? Because that last part sounded like the sort of thing a parent in the hero-ing business would say. Or at the very least something that someone who cared would say.

The nerve of that man!

She hoped she was wrong about her assessment. She really did. What right had that man to act concerned now of all times!

“Why do you care, sir? I’m not your responsibility.” She tossed out serenely, only her habit of not externalizing her emotions keeping her from blowing up at him. She refused to lose control. “But my classmates’ safety _is_ my responsibility. You pointed it out before, remember sir? You were _very_ clear about it too. After all, I’m Ladybug. If I can deal with Hawkmoth then for sure I could deal with something as minor as this. There weren’t even any magical artifacts being used, after all.” She interrupted dismissively before he could speak.

He pinched his nose right between the eyes in exasperation. He looked tired. Probably had a long day dealing with something she didn’t care enough to ask about.

“Are you really throwing a tantrum about that? I thought you were more mature than that.” He said in the same tired and frustrated tone.

“Once more, I don’t know what you are talking about. You were very clear about what you wanted. Why are you now complaining just because I abide to your decision? Not to mention that as Batman you always made very sure to state you didn’t want other heroes on your turf. Why would I violate that simple rule and suit up? Have you been getting enough sleep, sir? You aren’t making too much sense right now.”

He looked at her, looking completely done with life. And perhaps he was. She had no idea what he’d gotten to in the time between conversations but honestly, she couldn’t be bothered to care, which was perhaps a first.

“I advise you to stop twisting my words.” He stated calmly.

“I don’t know what part of what I said was twisting your words. You did say this, did you not? You look too young to start having Alzheimer, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. Sucks to be you but hey, at least it’s not me.

She saw through the window they were reaching the hotel so she decided to go for a final blow.

“It’s funny, you know. You claim you expected better from me just because I won over Hawkmoth, and perhaps you have some reason for that all things considered. Though I do wonder why then should I have joined your team in the first place. After all, at least _I_ can get a terrorist in jail and actually _keep_ him there, unlike you. Looking at it in this lens, I don’t see why you thought I would join such a downgrade of my standards. I’m actually surprised you still had the nerve to berate me over Lila when you can’t even keep your rogues in jail.” She stated quickly with a glare before opening the door and stepping out, her serene expression back in place as if it had never left. “Thank you for the ride, sir. I hope that the situation that caused us to meet never repeat themselves.” She added, and they both knew she was referring to their first conversation, not the hostage situation like anyone listening in on the street might assume.

And so, she was once again walking away from him with her head held high, feeling somewhat lighter now that she’d gotten the rage out of her system with that last parting shot.

Was it childish to toss his shortcomings back in his face? Perhaps. But honestly, he’d had it coming. At least she hadn’t added salt to the wound by bringing up the Robins he’d let die or get seriously injured.

Thankfully, her class was leaving Gotham in the morning and she doubted that he’d try to keep them there out of vindication over her last words.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, as she walked away, a butler was sighing in exasperation at his master’s lack of emotional skills and tact and a group of vigilantes were having a laugh over what they’d heard over the transmitter in the limousine with only one notorious, blood related exception.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a few other one shot I considered writing in this particular AU, like a possible confrontation between Adrien and Marinette before she flees, a potential timeline where she manages to stay hidden and then her safety net gets used, etc. I don't have plan's to continue this beyond those and invite you all to write a continuation if you feel like it so long as you mention me and m3owww as inspiration for it.  
> Oh, and if you do, please send me the link ^w^ I would love to read it.


End file.
